COWDYDF

Weeeeeelllll I actually think about this surprisingly often

I don't actually have a full plot, but I do have some ideas, based on the original COWDYD ideas + other stuff. I will now try to explain it concisely in a way that conveys it sufficiently??

Basic shit: So, there are two forces- let's call them 'creation' and 'destruction', or perhaps the more flavorful 'light' and 'dark'. At a time in the distant past relative to the story, these forces, or an extension of them, waged war across the world. Each of was trying to gain access to the Worldcore- a sort of interface for the essence of the universe (planet?). The Worldcore is naturally blank, so it will take on the desire of whoever first obtains it- and then that desire will be written into the very fabric of being. Each side in this war empowered an equal number of the planet's (galaxy's? universe's? really not sure on what the scale of the story should be tbh) inhabitants that they deemed most likely to aid them. These chosen gained the ability to directly enforce their deepest desires, just like the two forces can (albeit on a smaller scale). They would act as wildcards of a sort- able to side with either force, or to seek the core for themself. The 'players', however, deemed that the world was not ready for the trial. They succeeded in sealing away the trial, and their consciousnesses with it. When the trial inevitably started again, each of them was bound to the mind of one of the new set of players, to act as a source of power and guidance. This second run of the trial is the story! (the first set of players is based off of us, as a reference to original COWDYD ideas)

So, I imagined that the manifestations of people's hopes appeared as sort of star-shaped crystals. Each player has one pop into existence to activate their magic, and Light and Darkness both have a massive super-special one, because they're the primal forces of reality and narrative as opposed to mere human wishes. The Worldcore looks like a big ball of swirling power and many, many stars. The impetus for the trial (what should the trial be called?) to begin is the Worldcore 'reaching maturity', I guess? (Not quite sure what determines that). I think that because of this, as the game is played, little sprouted off Worldcore bits start to fall from the sky, or rise from the earth, or something. Essentially, reality stars to become saturated with the raw essence of reality that the Worldcore provides access to. So tiny blank wish-stars begin to 'condense'. Like the Worldcore, these can be claimed and imprinted, increasing the power of the person who claimed it to do the whole magical imprint their will on reality thing.

A 'player's' (chosen? exalted? magus? what should they be called?) magic is their deepest desire, the need most fundamental to them. What powers they get are a direct reflection of their personality and true self, or essence of being. I had, at one point, a sort of class system that I could elaborate on, but these current ideas of mine don't really gel with that- the players' magics are too individual, I think. What do you think? I might draw up an explanation of the classes anyway tbh.

I also have some ideas about other fundamental forces (Preservation?) making a lesser appearance, but ehhh.

I have a few character concepts about the new players!
One had the wish to never be alone again. Her magic, rather than being internal, is externalized as a giant fancy purple cat (purple is sort of their color). The cat fights for and protects them. They gain the power to form empathetic bonds with people they care about, and leap to the location of anyone they're bonded to instantly
Another is an antagonist! They desire to end all suffering. And while they admire doctors and the like from a distance, they think that those who try to heal and help others are merely treating a symptom. To truly end suffering, they are going to end existence. To live is to suffer, after all. And this player is going to save everyone. Powers include basically just instantly erasing chunks of reality, or maybe causing instant, sudden death- no physical cause of death, just immediate end of consciousness.
Another player wants to be the very best. Like no one ever was! Actually though, they have major feelings of inadequacy and their magic basically just straight up makes them super strong, fast, and intelligent. Everyone looked down on them, called them weak and stupid. Now they'll show the world just how wrong it was to write them off as a failure.
The fourth player idea I have is someone who seeks the truth of what happened re: important backstory shit. They can, among other things, traverse time- allowing them to finally see the truth firsthand (this one is the least developed and sense-making ish idea tbh).


Feedback, please- tell me what you think! What is the exact nature of the warring forces? What do you think of my player ideas? Who should the other players be? Who and how many of us were G1 players? What should the precise nature of the trial be? What should everything be named? What is the setting like? Should the G1 players be mindghosts, or literally show up again? Are there any parts of my ideas you especially like/dislike?

Thanks a bunch!
The Dichotomy is okay, but imo it sounds a bit too... passive, I guess? More like a constant fact than an event or war.
As for the writing, I guess both those ideas could be okay? I honestly haven't thought as far as making anything, yet. I've just been thinking about setting/rules/characters/plot etc.

Schism?

I'm really fond of the flavor of V's idea. Perhaps the players could be called Lords, thus implying that they inherently have more power than the average NPC, having been reincarnated from the ashes of the old. Plus I like the sound of it. Order and Entropy could also be two sides, set in a dying world sort of setting where the followers of Order could be attempting to rebuild upon the ruins of the old, while Entropists are attempting to bring it all down, perhaps so they can rebuild it later, but that's not so much a concern of now. Another name could be the Resurgence and the Rebirth.

Makes sense. Was just throwing a few more ideas out into the broth. And yeah, I think something like Lord would fit into the primal feel your setting already has, and would give the player more of a sense of freedom and certainly more power than they would otherwise, which I feel might be appropriate. However, it definitely does change the tone of the contest, from your more sci-fiesque to a more epic fantasy work. Thus, it probably wouldn't work as well with your other idea of the old players' minds being bound to the new, but would certainly work if the new players were reincarnations of the old.

Thus we would have two possible variants of the setting. In both we have the last batch of old players sacrificing themselves to protect/contain/whatever the Worldcore. In the first, their bodies are either dead or in stasis, and their minds are bound in some way to the new, either by their own choosing or by some other reason. This would give the 'players' a reliable source of information and skills and whatnot that they can use to get through the trials. In the other, the old players would most likely be dead, and their souls moved on to the next host; their memories would largely be lost, but their powers would remain for the players to unlock and use. This would give the players their own sense of agency without making them feel constrained by whatever their voice was telling them to go do. It would also create a greater sense of mystery surrounding what exactly could have befallen the old group, which we could play around with.

Also, I had another idea. I really like the idea of the players changing form should they tap into their old power,taking on aspects of the old players. This could be either a partial or a full transformation, depending on how much power they choose to use, or can use.

The one on the left is the normal state, a masked illusionist with tattered robes and a cloak made of numerous feathers from numerous types of birds. His "Lord Form" (or something like that) would have his mask sort of fuse with his face and his cloak change into a set of chromatic wings.


EDIT: Forgot my last idea. The overall setting, instead of being set to one world, which may be too 'small' in scope (and raises a lot of questions regarding all these races and tech levels) or in a conventional space setting, which may to large. We could go for a layered world setting, in which each plane is metaphysically stacked on top of each other, like an onion (or an ogre), with the Worldcore being the heart or it all. It could lead to a grand adventure in which players have to find the entrance/portal/whatever to the next world down, and then complete the trial required to pass through it and move on.

Heir could work too. Perhaps Lord could be what their fused forms are called, or maybe what the old players or known as. Or maybe not, who knows. Mind buddies could be a good thing as well, but maybe there could be rules so that they're not too cheesy. Like, maybe on the upper levels their minds are still relatively fractured, but as the player delves lower their memories slowly return and their minds become more collected, allowing themselves to align themselves better with their host, thus giving the host a greater range of their powers as well as information that they couldn't get before.

I'm mainly concerned about that because I had a vague idea for a twist with the Core, where perhaps accessing it will allow a great primeval beast to emerge, or otherwise having some major side effect that would cause all of the former [Title]s to sacrifice themselves. Then when they reform and attach themselves to the new players later on, all they can remember is that they need to find the Core, and thus the quest is born. It's only as they get nearer and nearer to the center that they begin to have more and more reservations about accessing the chamber. I mainly just have the image of the Core surrounded by an orbiting ring of silhouetted, desiccated bodies, which finally begin to crumble into dust as the players reach the final chamber. I am not yet sure how the two warring forces figure into this.

Hope you feel better, Pemi!

You idea for a twist sounds pretty different from my ideas re: trial cosmology. I guess I would need to know more about it to really hash it out with you (+other people c'mon guys say something).

My ideas for how the body sharing worked were pretty basic. The previous player's spirit was just sort of a ghosty hallucination that only their host could see/hear/ect. They didn't actually have any control over the body. I have two ideas re: the older player's affecting the world- either control of the body is temporarily given by the host so that the older more experienced player could channel their abilities (basically possession but the host agrees to it); the G1 player is 'summoned' and the ghosty mind form is temporarily a real(ish) thing (probably for a super short time like just long enough to cast one spell or something); or the two players 'fuse' together melding mental, magical, and possibly physical attributes.

Also, do you have any further thoughts on the scope/layout of the story? Is it planetbound, universe-wide, bridging several planes of existence, something else? I think that decision might in part depend on the Worldcore's nature. Is it the key to the universe's essence? If so, it would be weird to have a story only on one planet. Is it only the core of one planet? That seems a little odd for some reason. Or is it the product of a specific sentient species reaching a certain point of development?

Also, old idea I remembered regarding the smaller unallocated chunks of wish power (like mini worldcores) falling from the sky or spontaneously appearing or rising from the earth or whatever. Originally, I had an idea that they would warp the world around them, making barriers and guardians for themselves, as sort of a generic rudimentary consciousness. What do you think of that? Also, if that is the case, would that mean the Worldcore is in some sort of megadungeon?